Jon Kabat-Zinn

American molecular biologist, meditation teacher, and the founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) — the eight-week protocol developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in 1979 that introduced mindfulness meditation into mainstream Western medicine, education, and corporate life. A student of Zen masters Philip Kapleau, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Seungsahn, and of yoga teacher Robert Thurman, he stripped Buddhist meditation of its religious context and presented it as an evidence-based practice for chronic pain, anxiety, and stress. The MBSR curriculum has now been studied in thousands of clinical trials and adopted in hospitals, schools, prisons, and Fortune 500 companies worldwide. His books — Full Catastrophe Living, Wherever You Go There You Are, Coming to Our Senses — have sold millions of copies and shaped how an entire generation thinks about attention.